Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen was recently interviewed on Sirius XM radio and a longer transcript is now available.

As mentioned yesterday Phil spoke to DJ Eddie "he isn't the devil after all" Trunk
on Friday night about the upcoming North American tour.

Phil talked about the how Eddie's radio show and website mistakenly "leaked" the 2017 tour dates (on 12th January), finishing the Tesla album, how it was recorded on tour,
band friendship, the 2017 North American tour, Poison tour stories, Bret Michaels tour 'announcements' at solo shows,
2016 Classic Rock award/awards shows performance, Rocklahoma Festival, joining Def Leppard in 1982, Delta Deep's history/new music,
what Sav does on his time off, an update on Joe's voice and Vivian's health.

Many thanks to Curt for sharing the interview which lasted around 28 minutes.

This interview was broadcast live on 13th January during the show which runs from 2pm to 4pm ET. And was then
replayed between 9pm to 11pm ET.

The audio may eventually be added to the Eddie Trunk Podcast page. The 30th November show is the latest one currently available. (Posted on 12th January).

Did you catch any wind Phil of the sort of mini drama that I sort of sparked?.

"No I didn't. No, what happened?."

Eddie Trunk - "Oh you didn't hear about this?. I was inadvertently, by accident, someone sent me, a few hours too soon, a press release
for your tour with Poison. And it was not supposed to be sent out when it was and I went on the air with it on this show
and posted it on my social media and it created a bit of a fire storm because it wasn't supposed to come out when it did.
So I sort of got about four or five hours ahead of your guys announcing it because someone erroneously sent me the release."

"Fantastic. So the Eddie Trunk exclusive."

Eddie Trunk - "But it wasn't by design because your drummer Rick was texting me. He's like, 'Oh. Why would you do this?'. He was upset and I
was - you guys are friends. I said I would never breach a confidence with you guys if you told me. I said I got a press release. So I forwarded
it to your manager and I said look, it didn't say don't put it out at any certain time and he said' 'OH, all good, no problem somebody made a mistake'.
So it was funny because I heard the Def Leppard website was actually taking the news from my website because they didn't even know it at the time."

(The disclaimer I put up on my news story perhaps?...;)...)

"Fantastic. Even better. That's great."

Well, I'm here to help. I'm only here to help Phil.

"Always, absolutely."

Def Leppard/Poison 2017 Tour

Bret had been saying it from the stage from his solo shows for a while.

"Right, there you go. So he put it out there and it comes true. So what's that book?. The Secret?. Apparently that's what you do.
So yeah, that works."

2017 Setlist

"Yeah. It's still promoting the new album. It's not like a Greatest Hits kind of package or anything like that. It's definitely promoting the Def Leppard
self-titled album. So yeah we've still got some juice left in that tank. So that's really cool and we love the way that turned out.
So yeah we wanna get it out there and promote it. It's a lot of fun."

Delta Deep Second Album

"You know we got the new Delta Deep album. We're gonna start recording that soon and there's a live album that we have in the can
that'll be out this year as well."

"The new stuff I've been writing for that as well. When I get a spare second. And we have a live album which we recorded last year.
We're actually gonna call it East Coast Live because we done a West Coast one, an East Coast one. But the East Coast one actually turned out great.
That was literally almost a year ago that we done that tour. So that's been mixed and we're gonna be releasing that soon."

"And then the new album will be coming out towards the end of this year. We finish recording that. So yeah I'm gonna be non stop busy."

Rick Savage's Time Off

"Well he goes home and watches football. He takes a well deserved rest. He lives in England. He's the only one of us who actually lives in the UK.
So he goes home and sees his family you know his two boys and stuff. So he has a blast. He can't wait to do that. So yeah it's a very different thing."

How is Joe Elliott's Voice now?

"He's great. He's still obviously a little bit nervous but as I keep telling him. I've never heard him sing this well. Here's a funny little story.
We were in Arizona this summer. Last summer. And I was messing around in the dressing room or something and the guys had already started soundcheck.
They were out there, I didn't know. I was like late. I was doing something. So I come out and I hear Shoot To Thrill.
And you know we have that as a going on song you know by AC/DC. And I'm going why is Ronan our mixing guy playing Shoot To Thrill?.
So anyway I open the door and it's the band. It's the guys playing it and Joe was singing it and I honestly thought it was the AC/DC version.
And I said whoah! I said why are you nervous?. Listen to your voice, this is amazing."

"So that was it really. So I really do believe he's singing better than - he's a better singer than he ever was before and he sings better than he was before.
The problem that we had is when you tour that much. It's like an athlete you know. If you keep hitting it and hitting it and hitting it and you don't take a break.
You can really damage yourself. So that was the scary part about it. But you know as a singer and as a performer you know honestly he's the best I've ever heard him.
I just love hearing him sing. You know he's got such an iconic voice. It's just such a blast to get up there every night and hear him do that. I'm thrilled."

"But I have to convince him. He doesn't quite believe me."

Singing AC/DC's Shoot To Thrill

"It was just like the record. I thought it was AC/DC. You know through the door, I'm going 'Oh my god, this is amazing'."

Maybe he was auditioning for AC/DC?

"Yeah I think you're right. I think you got something there. Oh geez. OK, I'll have to have another word with him."

Vivian Doing well?

"He is actually the last time we were up here in Sacramento Last In Line played and we went down to see him. He was in great spirits.
So yes. All good you know."

"So far so good. He's just gotta take it easy and you know he was taking this special medication before and I'm sure he explained all that.
But he's doing great and he was great on tour. I think the trick is to, it's easy to say for me, don't get stressed out. I mean that's part of the (phone drop out).
But no he's doing fantastic. All good."